Georgette Heyer Fans discussion

Hi everyone! Today I went book scouring some second-hand book shops I know- to see if I could find some Heyers..and I got 5 Sourcebooks releases- gorgeous! and best of all they were on 2$ each! I got:Bath Tangle, These Old Shades, Arabella, Regency Buck, The Grand Sophy. I now have some of these in doubles..will mean I'll have to do a Giveaway at some point.
Where do you get your Heyers- and what was your most recent purchase?

When I first started reading GH, back in the 1960s during my teen years, I found almost all of Heyer's books in libraries: school and public.

I originally got mine from libraries, too. Later I started to pick up copies of my own at secondhand bookstores. Nowadays I'd probably hit Abebooks.

I originally borrowed them all from the library (several times, at different points: first when I was 11, second when I was at college, and again from time to time thereafter). I bought them second-hand whenever I saw them, in church fetes, jumble sales and charity shops. In the last few years I bought some of the Sourcebooks editions new, since my second-hand copies are worn out from re-re-reading!

Yes! The wonderful libraries:) but nowadays Heyer is so hard to find- except for online but from here in Canada the shipping kills me. And it's way worse for the Plaidy novels...so I'm thankful when I can find some at thrift shops or second hand book stores:)

Isn't ABEbooks a Canadian company?

Your mention of shipping costs prompts me - I think that a UK company, The Book Depository, ships free worldwide. I just did a quick search for Heyer - and they're 25% and 30% off at the moment!!

I have to order them online. No one here in my country knows about Georgette :(

I got most of mine @ Barnes and Noble or off Amazon(it's free shipping if you spend 25 bucks).The new Scourcebook ones.I LOVE all the covers.I have all her regency romances,2 of her mysteries,and 2 of her historical fiction.I am trying to collect all her books.

At first, I was reading all the Heyer books my library had to offer, which wasn't much. And I just had to read them all, at least, the romances. Those books are addictive. So I started looking at all the local used book stores for anything I could find. Most of the copies I came across were old and crumbling. So I decided to bite the bullet and pay full price for the Sourcebook copies. Then I had a bad experience buying The Reluctant Widow. My copy had missing pages and pages repeating throughout the book. It was basically a big jumble. So I returned it and received a copy that was even worse. Feeling mutinous, I decided to buy the rest used off Amazon and Barnes and Noble from a different publisher, mainly Arrow.
I could get them in excellent condition for less than I was paying for new ones, even with shipping costs.

I read my first few from the library and having fallen in life long love with GH started buying them. In India GH is easily available in the book stores and online on flipkart.

Most of my Heyer novels are paperbacks I've owned since the 1970s, some of which are a bit fragile! I also have a small number of first editions, which I've been given as gifts and I now have a few on my Kindle as well.

These days, when I'm looking to buy a book which is not available on the Kindle, I try Abebooks first, then Book Depository. I love not having to pay postage when I order on BD.

Lucky you! I get my Heyers from secondhand bookshops, though they're really hard to find. I've been looking for Heyers for 6 years, and I only managed to find 8 of her books. None in my libraries. :(((

I always thought Abe books was only in the US -
I will have to check that out. As for book depository- it's true! I completely forgot about them. But what i really would love is to find the very old Heyer's- since I'm collecting- and I would die to find ones that are autographed- this would be amazing!

Amazon! (UK)

I bought my first four when I was on vacation (eight months pregnant, so I couldn't do much besides read), but actual books make suitcases and my purse heavy, so since then I usually buy ebooks. I have found several of her books at second hand stores though, and it is nice to have real books for sharing with friends. So long as they remember to give them back:)

I know what you mean about the weight Jaima! I find e-books fun too and so much more convenient- but I'm a sucker for collecting oldies; mainly Heyers and Plaidys:)

Lucy wrote: "I always thought Abe books was only in the US -
I will have to check that out. As for book depository- it's true! I completely forgot about them. But what i really would love is to find the very..."

Abebooks has lots of Heyer novels, Lucy. If you use this link to look at individual books, don't be startled. The default position seems to be that the books are listed from highest to lowest price, which can be easily changed!

I doubt that you will find any autographed copies, unless they're ones she gave to her friends. Heyer hated publicity and didn't do interviews or book signing events.

Hey Kim-thanks so much for that link! As for autographs... I'm the hopeful type- some people have been lucky enough to find Plaidy autographs! But yeah, it's true that Heyer really was very private...

Lucy wrote: "I know what you mean about the weight Jaima! I find e-books fun too and so much more convenient- but I'm a sucker for collecting oldies; mainly Heyers and Plaidys:)"

Yes. I'm the same. No matter how convenient an ebook is, it is not the same experience as paper, so stumbling across a favorite second hand is always a happy coincidence. I love when I find secondhand books with old bookplates in them, or inscriptions to the original owner. I've never found anything signed by an author. Though it sounds as if the chances of finding an autographed Heyer are rare, it is fun to imagine! I bet she had beautiful handwriting.

I bought mine from Harlequin and Amazon. Then there was a sale on the Kindle version (only $2.99 each), so I bought all of them for Kindle.

Suzanne wrote: "I bought mine from Harlequin and Amazon. Then there was a sale on the Kindle version (only $2.99 each), so I bought all of them for Kindle."

Harlequin sells Heyer's as well?! Wow, I didn't know that.

Jaima wrote: "Lucy wrote: "I know what you mean about the weight Jaima! I find e-books fun too and so much more convenient- but I'm a sucker for collecting oldies; mainly Heyers and Plaidys:)"

Yes. I'm the same..."

My friend found an old Plaidy copy with a long dedication to a fan along with her autograph..so anything is possible!

Lucy wrote: "Suzanne wrote: "I bought mine from Harlequin and Amazon. Then there was a sale on the Kindle version (only $2.99 each), so I bought all of them for Kindle."

Harlequin sells Heyer's as well?! Wow, ..."
I don't know if they still do, this was several years ago. These are the covers for them: http://www.historicalromance.myzen.co...

Suzanne wrote: "Lucy wrote: "Suzanne wrote: "I bought mine from Harlequin and Amazon. Then there was a sale on the Kindle version (only $2.99 each), so I bought all of them for Kindle."

Harlequin sells Heyer's as..."

Very interesting- and so unexpected! Thanks:)

For those of us who love audiobooks - if you're a member of Audible, in the UK there is a sale until Sunday 10th March with several of the unabridged recordings of Georgette Heyer available for only £5.99 each! This includes several performed by Cornelius Garrett, who is wonderful at reading Heyer.

They may be available in the US and elsewhere too at reduced prices - I hope so!

That is so cool! I'm not sure it's available here in Canada though...? I love audio books

These days I'm an Audible listener and when the GH titles first became available on Audible I used my 2 monthly credits to buy GH titles until I had added every unabridged title that was available (except for some of the historicals that I don't want to re-read). Unfortunately, Audible-US does not have all of the GH titles and it hasn't added a title in a couple of years. I keep writing them and asking them to add more but each time I get the same canned non-answer.

I also have an entire shelf full of paperback that I acquired over the years from various sources but mostly from used book stores. I haven't picked one up in years but I won't throw them out.

Audible UK doesn't have them all, either. I have several of the Heyers on cassettes, bought on eBay. I play them at home when I'm knitting (I usually play audiobooks in the car).

It is infuriating that they're not all on Audible given that the work of recording them has already been done!

library

Veronica wrote: "library"

Yes, yes, yes! support your local library. It will often have older out of print books that the bookstores consider not worth putting on their shelves. Mine has the entire Heyer collection. Some of them are in storage but they are still available for check out if you ask.

I agree - I'm sure every library in Britain once had a full set of Heyer's Regency romances, and some of those must be available in store even if they're not out on the shelves. The library is where I first saw them and read them the first three times (different libraries at different ages).

AMAZON! :D

My first reading of Heyer, many moons ago, was borrowing my Mom's copies. Once I moved out, I started collecting my own copies by combing through used bookstores...

Now that they have been reissued, I have been slowly replacing the paperbacks that are falling to pieces. I buy the new copies from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon.

Leslie wrote: "My first reading of Heyer, many moons ago, was borrowing my Mom's copies. Once I moved out, I started collecting my own copies by combing through used bookstores...

Now that they have been reiss..." New ones! Brillian idea, since tape only works for repairs for so long...

Karlyne wrote: " New ones! Brillian idea, since tape only works for repairs for so long..."

LOL!! Yes, and some of mine were so old that the pages were no longer staying attached to the spine of the book - basically I had a cover around a bunch of loose pages. Disaster if you drop it!!

Ah! I confess to using a heavy-duty stapler to rebind paperbacks if the gutters are big enough and the book thin enough. Am I just too cheap to buy reissues? Or too fond of my adolescent marginalia?

I favor the rubber-band around all the loose pages method. Unless you have kids around...

I get mine from Amazon or Chapters, depending which has the lowest prices (although they are usually pretty much the same). I just ordered An Infamous Army and April Lady and I should receive them tomorrow! I'm so excited; nothing beats getting a new Heyer!

The library. They have all her major works mostly first American edition hardcovers. I don't like the new Sourcebooks editions aside from the pretty (and sometimes anachronistic covers). There are some changes in the words used. I have Frederica and in the original edition the word for hot air balloon basket is "gondola" and in the Sourcebooks it's "basket." I don't like the formatting either. It's just too new for me. I see some of the Sourcebooks and the Harlequin editions at a local Used/Rare bookstore. I also found some Harlequin editions at a thrift store. If I could get my hands on the original first edition British novels, I would love to own them. I always prefer to read the original of a book whenever possible.

That's fascinating. I had no idea that they had changes to the text. That particular one is annoying - is there an assumption that things have to be made easier?

I hate when the publishers tamper with the author's word choices. I think there is an assumption that people are stupid. In my sourcebooks edition of Lady of Quality, mention is made of Annis Wychwood working on her household accounts in "the book room." Earth to Sourcebooks: it's called a library! People who read historical romances will get this!!!

I've noticed other offences in my Source books editions Sadly, when I discovered GH approx 3 yrs ago, these are all that are available to me. I wish I could get my hands on versions that were published or reissued earlier before publishers started patronizing readers of historical romances. I have noticed this type of idiocy in other HR titles that I had been reading. There seems to be a conspiracy to dumb down the historical romance genre or maybe these publishers and editors think so little of historical romance genre and their readers that they think we are imbeciles for reading "these type of books" in the first place.

I am reading gone with the wind as a group read with another GR group. Scarlett is described as wearing a "flowered muslin" dress. In the edition of GWTW that I read in the 70s when I was a teen ager, she was wearing a sprigged muslin dress. Ugh.

It seems that the trend is for publishers to assume everyone is stupid who reads period lit or HR.

I think "book-room" is actually a legitimate period usage.

Well, I may have been wrong there. But there are other things that I can't think of now that inspired belief that sourcebooks tampered with GHs words. She must be turning in her grave. I read that recent biography written about her and she was adamant that her publisher not fool around with her words, phrases and punctuation. She insisted that her books be published as she has written them.

But thank you for the correction.

The more I think about this the crosser I get. Heyer worked hard to find the authentic 18th century / Regency vocabulary to give her books real veracity. How DARE the publishers change anything? The accuracy of the language is one of the key features of her books.

I wonder if the copyright owners know?

One of the phrases I learnt from her books is "muniment room". I bet they've changed that! Heaven forbid any reader should have to Google a word they don't know!

What do they do with the thieves cant? eg in The Tollgate?

I agree. One can almost always figure out an unfamiliar word from the context, and if not, it's so easy to look it up- especially reading Ebooks. I love being able to run
My finger over a word and have the definition pop right up.
I guess this is just one of the symptoms of the dumbing down (or debasement, in my more annoyed days ) of the historical fiction genre, especially in romance. It's sad.
I am glad that I've been pointed to some enjoyable, authentic reads in the tradition of GH in these threads. Much harder to find on my own.

I seriously cannot think of one word that I learned because I had to look it up and couldn't figure out what it was from the context. All good readers figure words out by context, whether they are 7 years old or 107. Waiting to read complicated books until you know the definition of every word is like waiting to eat until you're a Master Chef.

Karlyne wrote: "I seriously cannot think of one word that I learned because I had to look it up and couldn't figure out what it was from the context. All good readers figure words out by context, whether they are..."

I had to look up a word today, although its basic sense was clear from the context. The word was atrabilarious ("This gentleman was naturally of an atrabilarious temperament, and much troubled with those phantoms of indigestion which are commonly called blue devils.") My Kindle dictionary didn't have it so I had to resort to the tried-and-true method (my massive print dictionary). I actually enjoy coming across words I don't know in books -- the idea of publishers removing them makes me cross.

"Atrabilarious", as in bilious, liverish, testy even? I love it!!! I think I'll use it next time the blue devils try to get a toehold on me...